So the premise the ACA is failing is false??
Any American who doesn't have their head up their ass or consistently blows Obama at every opportunity can plainly see the ACA is failing and a dumpster fire.
"Underhanded and scummy" tactics not needed.
Most Democrats want to fix what's wrong, and view the problems as fixable. Republicans want to scrap the idea of universal healthcare entirely. If you don't support the concept of universal healthcare, then that's one thing. If you're in denial about the current state of affairs, and are doing everything possible to make it fail, that's another.
It is insanely unrealistic to expect a massive piece of social legislation such as ACA to go off without a hitch, and there were/are hitches. The issue arose when Republicans refused to be a part of a solution to help fix those problems.
If the republicans could pass a bill, no matter what it is, that repealed and replaced the ACA, it too would have A LOT of issues if the Democrats decided not to help fix problems, and it would likely lead to the Dems taking back the house in 2018.
Personally, I think healthcare legislation is a political death-knell, and am not really sure why the Republicans have tried so hard to take the reigns on it when it has been obvious for 7 years that nobody had a better plan. IMO, you can kick and scream all you want, blame all of the issues on Obama, but ultimately work with it and make it work for the people. It's seeming more and more like that may be the plan.